


Hero

by sweetcarolanne



Category: Night Sun Tarot Deck
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Angst, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Magic, Magic-Users, Mythical Beings & Creatures, TOT Trick, ToT: Monster Mash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-30
Updated: 2016-10-30
Packaged: 2018-08-27 20:54:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8416384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetcarolanne/pseuds/sweetcarolanne
Summary: The child does not feel like a hero - merely a witness to the unspeakable, despite the great role he has now been called upon to play...





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shadow_lover](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadow_lover/gifts).



> Dear shadow_lover, I saw your prompt - and the wonderful Tarot deck pictures - and was inspired to write this for you! I hope it is something like what you wanted!
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I do not own the characters and am making no money from this.
> 
> Many thanks to my anonymous beta!

He does not know if he can ever speak of what he has seen. Horrors that no child should ever have been exposed to. But from this day forward, he will no longer be regarded as a child, but as a man. For this page has shown more courage in the face of death than many warriors have done, and has completed the mission that took the life of the man he loved in the way a son adores his father. 

The Queen herself has spoken of him as a hero. Across the desolate landscape littered with the bodies of the dead, corpses stinking of rot and torn apart by carrion-feeding beasts, this lone survivor has struggled to bring back the sacred egg his master sought to lay before Her Majesty’s golden throne. His little shoes were torn to shreds by thorns and stones as he stumbled homewards amongst the sharp rocks, thorns and splintered bones, but the bird-wing cloak bestowed by his ruler as a sign of his new rank – a lord of the realm and guardian of the precious hatchling who will soon emerge from her shell to take her dying mother’s place as living emblem of the nation – gives him an air of dignity despite his uncertain stance and the grief he strives to hide. Draping the cloak around his shoulders with her own hands before she could even give the orders for new shoes and clothing to be brought to the page, the sobbing Queen had kissed him again and again, calling him “a great and noble soldier” and “my son.”

 _My son_. These very words had been whispered to him as his beloved master breathed his last.

The boy also carries back to the royal palace his master’s sword and the grisly tale of how the evil wizard who stole the egg finally met his end. He cannot, however, bring himself to speak of how the brave knight he served died in his arms, or how he ached to smash the magical bird’s egg against the stones in rage and sorrow at his loss.

Soon, the page will see the frightening but strangely beautiful creature with feathers like flames break free of the egg, and watch over her as she grows. 

He breathes deeply, forcing his mind into calmness as he pictures what she will become, and he knows that he can never blame or hate her for his sufferings.


End file.
